“Do you want to study Narcan?â€
That’s what West Virginia University student Siti Suwanda’s faculty mentor, Paula Fitzgerald, asked her soon after they met.
A scholarship had just enabled Suwanda to leave Indonesia to pursue a degree abroad, and she had landed in Morgantown thanks to her fandom for Wonder Woman — the WVU logo reminded her of that superhero’s famous emblem, she said, convincing her to apply to the doctoral program in marketing at the WVU John Chambers College of Business and Economics.
She had never heard of Narcan, a nasal spray that delivers the life-saving medication naloxone to people experiencing opioid overdoses. She had never even heard of the opioid epidemic.
That conversation with Fitzgerald, the University’s Nathan Haddad Professor of Business Administration, changed the game for Suwanda.
In Jakarta, she’d studied how social values intersect with consumer behaviors. Now, she began to understand the bridge between marketing and public policy, including health care issues.
“I thought, ‘Yay, I’m going to have my doctoral journey in the U.S.,’ imagining this flashy, expensive country. Then I was made aware that over 80,000 people die annually from opioid overdoses here, and this has been happening since the 1990s. That number is not just a number. It’s somebody else’s everything. For me, as a researcher, if I could do something to help, let’s do it.
Working with Fitzgerald, associate professor Emily Tanner and WVU alumnus Matthew Sarkees, she began studying the effect of stigma on public attitudes toward Narcan. Various stigmas surround Narcan, fueled by negative attitudes toward opioids themselves, the people who use or carry Narcan, or the public funding that pays for it. Suwanda and her colleagues investigated how these beliefs are often rooted in the question of who’s to blame.
Their research revealed Narcan stigma increased when people blamed individual drug users. ÂÒÂ×ÄÚÉäs shifted, however, when they recognized the role of governmental regulations and pharmaceutical companies.
The shift, Suwanda noted, was tied to compassion. Stigma can be reduced, she said she believes, because compassion can be taught.
Her work also finds complex links between stigma and religious beliefs. In some cases, Suwanda said, strong religious beliefs fuel moral condemnation. In others, faith-based values such as forgiveness and second chances foster compassion. Her work encourages highlighting those values, especially in public messaging about harm reduction and opioid recovery.
“I realized I need to be more compassionate and kinder to others,†Suwanda said. “I’m a religious person and want to use my beliefs towards betterment. Otherwise, what is the point?â€
The emotional weight of the research isn’t easy, she said, especially coupled with the workload of the classes she teaches to WVU undergraduate students about global marketing and distribution channels. To recharge, she turns to brainstorming sessions with mentors, encouragement from her research peers and time in nature, including a recent camping trip with her husband and kitten.
“Life as a doctoral student can feel like being in a constant pressure cooker. It’s research, research, research. There are also classes to teach, and I want to be presentable for my students. Then last year, I added another variable: the 3-Minute Thesis Competition,†Suwanda said.
WVU hosts “3MT,†a challenge in which graduate students compete for cash prizes by presenting their research in three minutes and just one slide. Suwanda’s presentation of her findings on Narcan stigma engaged the crowd, earning her the 2025 People’s Choice Award.
It was the confirmation of what Suwanda had come to understand at WVU — that her research has the power to transform lives and maybe even save them.
“Marketing is not just about selling. It’s not just about profit. It’s also about people and planet. Marketing principles and frameworks can be used to do good, to be compassionate and be kind. We can make the world a better place.â€
